New York Magazine—The Science of Us | Discusses the research behind a recent Wall Street Journal column by behavioral researchers Cassie Mogilner Holmes (UCLA) and Michael Norton (Harvard Business School).

The Trace | Cites David Hureau (Ph.D. '16), Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at SUNY Albany and an affiliate of the University of Chicago Crime Lab:

What criminals want is “not significantly different from what the average gun owner interested wants,” according to David Hureau, a criminologist at SUNY-Albany, who has interviewed people seeking guns on the black market. Like the majority of gun owners interviewed in the Harvard/Northeastern survey, Hureau’s research subjects choose to carry guns because “they’re fundamentally engaged in self-protection.”

Slate | Discusses new study by economist Amanda Pallais of Harvard, coauthored with Leonardo Bursztyn  of the University of Chicago and Thomas Fujiwara of Princeton, which "found that single women in an elite MBA program responded to a career survey with lower salary targets and acceptable levels of work travel if they thought their responses might be visible to their classmates.

View the research: "'Acting Wife': Marriage Market Incentives and Labor Market Investments."

Chicago Reader | The odds of winning in eviction court are stacked against tenants; a lack of transparency is part of the problem, writes Maya Dukmasova. Cites Evicted by Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond on the role of evictions as a major contributing factor to entering and remaining entrenched in poverty.

The New York Times | Lawrence Katz quoted. “Over the long haul, clearly automation’s been much more important — it’s not even close,” said  Katz, an economics professor at Harvard who studies labor and technological change.

Labor economists say there are ways to ease the transition for workers whose jobs have been displaced by robots...Few are policies that Mr. Trump has said he will pursue. “Just allowing the private market to automate without any support is a recipe for blaming immigrants and trade and other things, even when it’s the long-[run] impact of technology,” said Mr. Katz, who was the Labor Department’s chief economist under President Clinton.

New York Magazine—Science of Us | A look at the research on emotions and consumption by psychologist Jennifer S. Lerner, a Professor in the Management, Leadership, and Decision Science Area at the Harvard Kennedy School and Co-founder of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory.

Time.com | Interview with behavioral scientist Todd Rogers (HKS), co-author of a new study on "paltering" with Richard Zeckhauser (HKS), Francesca Gino (HBS), and Michael I. Norton (HBS), which appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
View the research

The Economist | Cites research by Peter Ganong and Daniel Shoag on the dramatic decline in regional income convergence in the U.S. over the past 30 years. Shoag (Ph.D. '11) is Associate Profesor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ganong is a postdoctoral fellow at NBER and (beginning fall 2017) Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.
​​​​​​​View the research

Harvard Magazine | Excerpt from David A. Moss's forthcoming book, Democracy: A Case Study, available in January from Harvard University Press:

"[D]emocratic decision-making in the United States has nearly always been rooted in disagreement and tension, including plenty of bare-knuckle politics...The critical question is what makes this conflict either constructive or destructive...In most periods across the nation’s history, it has served as a powerful source of strength. But not always. And this, in a nutshell, is what we need to figure out. Why has fierce political conflict proved highly constructive at many historical moments and severely destructive at others, and which type of conflict…characterizes the nation’s democracy today?"

Moss is the Paul Whiton Cherington Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and founder of The Tobin Project.... Read more about Open Book: Bare-Knuckle Politics

The Ezra Klein Show | Interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who discusses his cover article in the current issue of the Atlantic based on hours of interviews with President Obama about the role race played in Obama’s upbringing, his presidency, and the 2016 campaign. Asked about "a few of the data points" that have influenced his thinking, Coates cites work of Harvard sociologists Robert Sampson on neighborhoods and Devah Pager on discrimination in the labor market.

Harvard Gazette | Harvard sociology course,“Reinventing (and Reimagining) Boston: The Changing American City,” is featured. Taught by Robert Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, and David Luberoff, a lecturer on sociology and Senior Associate Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard.

The Atlantic | Cover article by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Jan-Feb 2017 print issue) cites research by Judith Scott-Clayton (Ph.D. '09) and Patrick Sharkey (Ph.D. '07). Judith Scott-Clayton, now Associate Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, found that "black graduates [hold] nearly $53,000 in student loan debt four years after graduation—almost twice as much as their white counterparts, and that "black college graduates are still substantially more likely to default on their debt within four years of graduation (7.6 percent versus 2.4 percent of white graduates)." Learn more about this research, which Scott-Clayton wrote about for the Brookings Institution "Evidence Speaks" series in October 2016. 

Coates also cites Patrick Sharkey, Professor of Sociology at New York University, whose book, Stuck in Place (University of Chicago Press, 2013), showed that black families making $100,000 a year or more live in more-disadvantaged neighborhoods than white families making less than $30,000.

Associated Press | Quoted: Leah Wright Rigueur, Assistant Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Bloomberg Markets | Roundup of new research highlights "The New Lifecycle of Women's Employment," by Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard, and Joshua Mitchell (Ph.D '11), Senior Economist, U.S. Census Bureau.
​​​​​​​View the research... Read more about She works hard for the money

The Atlantic—CityLab | The odds that kids will do better than their parents have plummeted. One possible fix: Learn from the neighborhoods in which income mobility is still thriving. Features new study and earlier research by economists Raj Chetty of Stanford and Nathaniel Hendren of Harvard from their Equality of Opportunity project. 

The 74 | Features Ann Owens (Ph.D. '12) and findings of her work, which has examined racial and income segregation in schools. Owens is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Spatial Sciences at USC and a 2016-17 NAEd/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow.

Wall Street Journal | Our minds play tricks on us, limiting the effectiveness of our efforts. Cites study in Science by Michael I. Norton, Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and collaborators Elizabeth W. Dunn and Laura B. Aknin, both of University of British Columbia, which showed that spending money on others promotes happiness.
​​​​​​​View the research

The Atlantic | Features Robert Manduca, Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy, a co-author of the study discussed in this article. The findings come from a new paper out of the Equality of Opportunity project, led by economists Raj Chetty of Stanford and Nathaniel Hendren of Harvard.
View the research

The Atlantic—CityLab | Delves into a major recent study by Robert J. Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, which examines the spatial foundations of persistent inequality. The study referenced in the article is part of the volume Economic Mobility, a new publication released by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
View the research

Business Insider | Do cash transfers to the poor lead to increased purchase of "temptation goods"? New study by David Evans (Ph.D. '05), a senior economist at the World Bank, and Anna Popova of Stanford University examines the evidence from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and concludes no. Their work is forthcoming the in the journal Economic Development and Cultural Change.
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Awardee | Deirdre Bloome (Ph.D. '14)

Awardee | Monica C. Bell, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology & Social Policy... Read more about Monica Bell receives four ASA awards for outstanding paper

Awardee | Robert Putnam

Awardee | Queenie Zhu, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology & Social Policy... Read more about Queenie Zhu receives ASA Sociology of Education Outstanding Graduate Student Paper award

Awardee | Katherine Levine Einstein (Ph.D. '12)... Read more about Katherine Levine Einstein awarded APSA Urban Politics paper prize

Awardee | Patrick Sharkey (Ph.D. '07)... Read more about Early Career Award for Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility

Awardee | Christopher Muller (Ph.D. in Sociology, '14)

Sixteen Inequality & Social Policy doctoral fellows receive their Ph.D's. See what's next for these grads.

Awardee | Sarah Cohodes (Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy)... Read more about Sarah Cohodes awarded W.T. Grant Foundation research grant

Awardee | Vesla M. Weaver (Ph.D. '07)... Read more about Best Book in Urban Politics

Awardee | Jessica Simes, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology... Read more about Jessica Simes awarded SSSP paper prize in crime research

Awardee | Ariel White, Ph.D. candidate in Government

Awardee | Anthony A. Jack, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology.... Read more about Anthony Jack awarded NAEd/Spencer dissertation fellowship

Harvard Magazine | Devah Pager

Awardee | Hope Harvey, Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy... Read more about Hope Harvey selected to join UPenn Summer Institute on Inequality

Awardee | Anthony A . Jack, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology... Read more about Anthony A. Jack awarded SSSP paper prize in education

Awardee | Theda Skocpol

Awardee | Claudia Goldin.  Membership in the American Philosophical Society, the country's first learned society, "honors extraordinary accomplishments" in all academic fields.

Awardee | Bruce Western

Harvard Gazette | Roland Fryer

University of California Television (UCTV) | Mary C. Waters, John L. Loeb Professor of Sociology at Harvard and Chair of a National Academy of Sciences Report on immigrant integration, talks with sociologist John Skrentny, co-director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego.

Brookings Institution | By Norm Eisen and Vanessa Williamson (Ph.D. '15),  both fellows in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. "This week, we discovered that our real work is being used to promote 'fake news'. As Yahoo News has reported, an obscure website, the “Center for Global Strategic Monitoring,” has been putting policy experts’ names on articles they did not write..."

JCHS Housing Perspectives | By Michael Hankinson, Ph.D. candidate in Government & Social Policy. Hankinson's findings, "based on new national-level experimental data and city-specific behavioral data....help explain why it is so hard to build new housing in expensive cities even when there is citywide support for that housing."  Read the full paper in the Joint Center for Housing Studies Working Paper series, and learn more about Hankinson's work at his website.
mhankinson.com

Harvard University Press: Blog | Excerpt from new book by David A. Moss, Paul Whiton Cherington Professor at Harvard Business School. 

Democracy: A Case Study stems from a course that historian David Moss developed in order to bring the strengths of the Harvard Business School’s case study method to conversations about governance, citizenship, and democracy. In the spirit of that course, the book highlights nineteen key episodes in the history of American democracy...In the passage below, excerpted from the book’s Introduction and with reference to its cases, Moss explains why American democracy is better understood as a living organism than a machine...Continue reading»​​​​​​​

Slate | By Ray Fisman (Boston University) and Michael Luca (Harvard Business School). Betsy DeVos is right that some government services should be approached more like businesses. She’s wrong to think education is one of them, write Fisman and Luca.

"In understanding why different organizational forms have their distinct advantages, it’s useful to focus on the particular assumption that market participants can write a contract that ensures a good or service is delivered as expected," the authors explain.... Read more about The Prophet of Profit

Washington Post | By Bart Bonikowski (Harvard) and Paul DiMaggio (NYU). Trump appeals to American nationalism, but which one? Based on the authors' research, "Varieties of American Popular Nationalism," recently published in the American Sociological Review.
View the research (complimentary access)

The Hechinger Report | By Natasha Kumar Warikoo (Ph.D. '05), Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education. "Betsy DeVos promotes a vision for society that outwardly extols the idea of equity but in reality does little to ensure it," writes Warikoo.

ProMarket—Stigler Center Blog | Should the economic theory of the firm be modified? In March, Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Harvard Business School, and Oxford University will hold a conference on this topic. Ahead of the conference, the Stigler Center is launching an interview series with influential scholars in the field.

Financial Times | By Lawrence Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus, Harvard University. This column also appears in the Washington Post.

Inside Story—Al Jazeera  | Joining the discussion, Leah Wright Rigueur of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Washington Post | By Daniel Carpenter, Allie S. Freed Professor of Government and Director of the Social Sciences at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Learn more about his research project on The Petition and Republican Government:
​​​​​​​View project website... Read more about Yes, signing those petitions makes a difference — even if they don’t change Trump’s mind

Democracy | The esteemed Theda Skocpol lays out the lessons the Tea Party movement holds for the left today. Interview with Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology. Skocpol is co-author with Vanessa Williamson (Ph.D. '15) of The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Education Next | By Martin R. West (Ph.D. '06), Associate Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education. What to expect in education from President Trump.

American Political Science Association | A statement issued by the American Political Science Association. Harvard's Jennifer Hochschild, past-President of APSA, is a signatory to the letter.

American Sociological Association | A statement by the American Sociological Association in response to the Trump administration's activities, including its Executive Order restricting entry into the United States for people from seven majority-Muslim countries. Harvard's Michèle Lamont currently serves as president of the ASA.

Washington Post | By Shom Mazumder, Ph.D. candidate in Government. It turns out that social science has a lot to say about which protests are likely to be effective. Here's what Mazumder's research found. Read more about his work at his website:
smazumder.me

The New York Times | Economic View column by Justin Wolfers (Ph.D. '01), Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan.

WGBH Innovation Hub | A conversation with Harvard political scientist Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, and Jane Mayer, journalist and author of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.

Foreign Policy | By Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy. What economists and populists both get wrong about the international economy.

LSE International Inequalities Institute (III) | This event marked the publication of The Contradictions of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a volume of essays that builds upon the renewed interest in wealth and inequality stimulated by the work of Thomas Piketty. Editors and authors Patricia Hudson, Avner Offer and Keith Tribe were joined by discussants Torben Iversen (Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy at Harvard and an LSE Centennial Professor) and Tasha Fairfield (LSE International Development), and associates of the LSE III to discuss inequality in an international context. Chaired by Mike Savage, Co-director of the International Inequalities Institute and Professor of Sociology at LSE.

In related work, Iversen is co-author (joint with Harvard's James Alt) of "Inequality, Labor Market Segmentation, and Preferences for Redistribution," now out in the January 2017 issue of the  American Journal of Political Science.
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Brookings Institution—The Brown Center Chalkboard | By Martin R. West (Faculty, Ph.D. '06)

Russell Sage Foundation | By Christopher Wimer (Ph.D. '07)

Congressional testimony| Testimony of  Scott Winship (Ph.D. '09) before Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston | By Alicia Sasser Modestino (Ph.D. '01), Daniel Shoag (Ph.D. '11), and Joshua Ballance

Usable Knowledge (HGSE) | Interview with Ron Ferguson

The Journalist's Resource | Katherine Levine Einstein (Ph.D. '12)

Global Development Network | By Dan Honig, Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy. Award-winning essay of GDN Next Horizons Essay Competition.

Congressional Testimony | Testimony of Justin Wolfers (Ph.D. '01) before Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate.

Washington Center for Equitable Growth | By Elisabeth Jacobs

Scholars Strategy Network | By Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol

Brookings Institution—The Brown Center Chalkboard | By Matthew M. Chingos and Martin R. West (Faculty, Ph.D. '06)

Scholars Strategy Network | By Theda Skocpol

Poverty and Race Research Action Council | By Eva Rosen (Ph.D. '14)

Brookings Institution—The Brown Center Chalkboard | By Martin R. West (Faculty, Ph.D. '06)

Journalist's Resource | William Julius Wilson, Robert Sampson

Washington Center for Equitable Growth | By Elisabeth Jacobs

Boston University Initiative on Cities | By Katherine Levine Einstein (Ph.D. '12) and David M. Glick

Scholars Strategy Network | by Judith Scott-Clayton (Ph.D. '09)

Scholars Strategy Network | By Jackelyn Hwang, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology & Social Policy.

Journalist's Resource | Joshua Goodman